As we enter the information age, there is an increasing need to transmit large quantities of information among a multitude of customer terminals. This information, in the form of digital signals, may represent voice communication, video, facsimile, bulk data transfers, et cetera.
While the existing public telecommunication networks can offer access to a vast majority of the customer terminals requiring wideband service, most telecommunication networks are limited to a relatively low bandwidth. Typically, access to the network is over a 4 KHz analog line, and one can expect transmission rate of less than 64 Kb/sec. for digital communication within the switched network due to the constraints imposed by existing switching and transmission facilities.
In those specific applications requiring greater bandwidth, private line facilities can be provided between selected customer terminals. These private line wideband facilities, however, are costly, and since they only serve a few terminals, they are frequently idle and not fully utilized.
Accordingly, a need exists in the prior art for extending the wideband capability to a greater number of terminals on a shared network basis.